MacRumors

Apple introduced the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus with several new features this week, one of the most significant being 3D Touch. The pressure-sensing technology enables iPhone users to perform additional multi-touch gestures called "Peek" and "Pop" to access Quick Action shortcut menus or preview content within apps.

Apple added a 3D Touch page to its website earlier this week with some examples of what Peek and Pop gestures can be used for, including previewing emails and websites, viewing photos you've taken while taking new ones, quickly accessing your contacts, taking a selfie, quick compose and more.

One of the more useful actions that 3D Touch makes possible is pressing the iPhone screen to turn the on-screen keyboard into a virtual trackpad (pictured on left).

One press turns your keyboard into a trackpad.
Press the keyboard within apps such as Notes, Mail, and Messages, and your keyboard behaves just like a trackpad. You can then use a cursor to easily select and manipulate text with precision.

Existing iPads running iOS 9 will also have similar functionality, with users able to control an on-screen cursor by moving two fingers anywhere on the screen, including over the QuickType keyboard, to select, edit and move text.

3D Touch also enables iPhone 6s and 6s Plus users to press the left side of the Home screen to switch to multitasking view, press lightly for finer lines or more deeply for thicker ones in Notes, swipe left to delete an email or swipe right to mark it as unread in Mail and more.

Two days after its jam-packed "Hey Siri" event that saw the debut of several new products, Apple has uploaded a full video of its presentation to its YouTube channel. The same video is also available on Apple's own event website.

Apple's "Hey Siri" event presentation was well-organized but fast-paced, as it covered the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus, the iPad Pro and its Pencil/Smart Keyboard accessories, the iPad mini 4, the Apple TV, and several new Apple Watch products, from new Rose Gold/Gold finishes for the Apple Watch Sport to exclusive Hermés Apple Watch models.

Rumors have suggested Apple's big fall extravaganza will be its final event this year, meaning there won't be a second event in October as there has been in years past. Apple has, however, split its upcoming product releases up over September, October, and November. The iPhone 6s and 6s Plus will launch on September 25, while the Apple TV will come in late October and the iPad Pro will launch in November.

Apple co-founder Steve Jobs famously dismissed the need for a stylus when introducing Multi-Touch on the original iPhone over eight years ago, touting the finger as the best pointing device in the world.

"Who wants a stylus? You have to get them, and put them away, and you lose them. Yuck. Nobody wants a stylus. So let’s not use a stylus."

Macworld 2007 was quite awhile ago, however, and Apple on Wednesday ultimately reversed course and introduced the Apple Pencil for iPad Pro, which it refers to as a creative tool for scribbling, sketching, annotating and editing.

Apple Pencil features a pointed tip with highly responsive sensors that allow for precise input down to a single pixel. To achieve this, Apple engineered the Apple Pencil and iPad Pro display to work together to detect position, force and tilt.

For example, as seen in the video below, you can press lightly for a thinner stroke, or press harder for a darker, bolder stroke. Likewise, you can draw with the Apple Pencil on an angle to produce broad, shaded strokes.

The iPad Pro's subsystem scans the Apple Pencil's signal 240 times per second, providing the tablet with twice the data points it would normally collect for a finger. This results in the Apple Pencil being very responsive, with almost indistinguishable latency, as seen in TechCrunch's hands-on video below.

Apple Pencil has a built-in rechargeable battery that lasts up to 12 hours on a single charge, but more interesting is its ability to gain 30 minutes of battery life from just 15 seconds of charging. A magnetic cap hides a male Lightning connector that allows the Apple Pencil to be plugged into the iPad Pro to charge.

Apple Pencil will be available in November for $99 alongside the new Smart Keyboard. While the Apple Pencil is officially compatible with the iPad Pro, it remains to be seen if the tool will work with older iPads as a traditional stylus.

Apple design chief Jony Ive and Hermès artistic director Pierre-Alexis Dumas recently spoke with The Wall Street Journal about how the Apple Watch Hermès came to be.

Interestingly, the two companies began collaborating on the premium Apple Watch last year, several months before the wrist-worn device was released.

“It’s something highly unusual for Apple to do—to talk about an unannounced project,” said Mr. Ive, 48 years old. They decided to partner over lunch in Paris, where Hermès is based, last October.

Jony Ive believes that, while the Apple Watch Hermès was the most expensive product introduced at Apple's media event earlier this week, the premium watch does not make Apple an "exclusive" company. He later compared the Apple Watch Hermès to the Apple Watch Sport, stating that the same amount of time and effort went into designing both models.

“We don’t think in those terms,” Mr. Ive said in an interview Wednesday, after the Apple Watch Hermès was unveiled. “I’m not comfortable with words like exclusive.” […]

“Look at this next to one of the sport collection,” he says, referring to the $349 rubber-bracelet version that accounts for the majority of watch sales to date, according to people familiar with the matter. “There’s not one that had more care invested in its designing or making.”

Nevertheless, Apple's partnership with luxury goods maker Hermès is further evidence the Apple Watch is being positioned to both the high-end technology and fashion industries. The returns could be lucrative, with the Apple Watch Hermès lineup ranging in price from $1,100 to $1,500.

Apple Watch Hermès watches feature leather straps handmade in France, with ten different models to choose from in Single Tour, Double Tour and Cuff designs. The collection will be available for purchase in October at select Apple Store and Hermès locations in Los Angeles, Miami, New York, San Francisco and Toronto.

Following the release of the first public beta for iOS 9.1 yesterday, along with the GM version on Wednesday, a few of the testers have come across a new feature introduced in the update. Somewhere in the Settings app, it appears that Apple has quietly added a set-up process for the new "Hey Siri" feature coming to the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus, thanks to a built-in M9 motion coprocessor that enables the phones' always-on functionality.

Although unconfirmed by Apple, the discovery in iOS 9.1 suggests that Siri will be able to begin detecting specific user voices and determine whether or not the owner of the iPhone in question is speaking to her. Similar in vein to the way Apple aimed its Touch ID feature to work better and better the more you unlocked an iPhone using the fingerprint scanning sensor, it seems the set-up process will guide users into stating words or phrases to better acclimate Siri with each iPhone owner.

Found in General > Siri > Allow 'Hey Siri', the new always-on feature is the next step-up in the technology by Apple, allowing users to ask Siri questions or make changes within the iPhone's apps by simply stating "Hey Siri" near the iPhone. The new set-up process discovered today could also just be a way for Siri to work better detecting voices in general, and not be specific to each user. With the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus launching in just two weeks, it won't be long until everyone can find out for themselves.

Thanks Alan and Daniel!

Apple's new iPad Pro is powered by a 64-bit A9X processor that delivers up to 1.6 times faster performance over the iPad Air 2, with up to twice as fast graphics. Apple also says the tablet is faster than 80% of portable PCs shipped in the last 12 months.

Apple's website notes the underlying technology behind the iPad Pro's desktop-class performance is a new storage controller that increases read and write speeds so that large files, such as 4K videos or RAW photos imported from an HD camera, can be opened much quicker (via AppleInsider).

The A9X chip is capable of processing data so quickly, it demanded a new memory architecture. iPad Pro features a revamped storage controller that helps deliver performance better than some desktop computers. This increases read and write speeds, so you can quickly open even the largest files. Like the big 4K movie you just edited or all the RAW images you imported from your HD camera.

iPad Pro launches in November in Silver, Space Gray and Gold, starting at $799 for a 32GB Wi-Fi only model. A 128GB Wi-Fi only model will cost $949 and a Wi-Fi + LTE 128GB model will cost $1,079. A new Apple Pencil and Smart Keyboard will launch alongside the tablet for $99 and $169 respectively.

One of the novel new features coming in the iPhone 6s is the new Live Photos feature which captures an additional 3 seconds of video surrounding photos on the new iPhones. The new feature is on by default and allows you to take photos as usual. Apple describes it:

A still photo captures an instant frozen in time. With Live Photos, you can turn those instants into unforgettable living memories. At the heart of a Live Photo is a beautiful 12‑megapixel photo. But together with that photo are the moments just before and after it was taken, captured with movement and sound

Live Photos will be viewable on existing iPhones, iPads, Macs and Apple Watch devices with the latest operating systems. Apple is also opening up the API for developers to support the new format in their own apps. Facebook has already committed to supporting Live Photos in their iOS app later this year.

While few details about the new image format has been released, TechCrunch's Matthew Panzarino reveals in a video that the new format will take up approximate twice the space of a normal 12MP photo. Panzarino describes that even the current iPhones start taking photos the moment the Camera app is launched, and that traditionally, only the last photo the moment the shutter is pressed is stored. The new system will simply take the surrounding photos and compress them into this new format.

Meanwhile, @DanMatte reveals that the new Live Photos format is a bundle of images based on the JPEG file format, allowing them to be easily sent as a still image to devices that don't support Live Photo. Apple's developer documents indicate that you can share the image as a regular JPEG if desired.

More details should come out as the new iPhones begin shipping on September 25th.

Following yesterday's big media event, Apple seeded the first beta of iOS 9.1 to developers, and now the company has made iOS 9.1 available to public beta testers. iOS 9.1 includes features for the iPad Pro, adding support for accessories like the Smart Keyboard and the Apple Pencil, both of which were designed for the larger-screened tablet.

iOS 9.1 also offers support for Unicode 8, introducing a selection of new emoji like taco, burrito, unicorn face, hot dog, popcorn, turkey, cheese wedge, and more. In the Settings app, users have found a new Siri setting that lets you give voice examples for the "Hey Siri" feature that can be activated whenever the iPhone is connected to power. With the new iPhone 6s and 6s Plus, this will be essential because "Hey Siri" activation can be used even when an iPhone is not plugged in.

Beta testers who have signed up for Apple's beta testing program appear to be receiving the iOS 9.1 beta as an over-the-air update, so it may be available to testers who were previously running iOS 9 beta 5.

People who want to be a part of Apple's beta testing program can sign up to participate through Apple's beta testing website, which gives users access to both iOS and OS X betas.

iOS 9.1 will likely be released to the public alongside the iPad Pro in November.

Apple has set higher prices for the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus in Canada, Australia and other countries to reflect a strengthening U.S. dollar and fluctuating currency exchange rates.

The off-contract prices for the iPhone 6s Plus in Canada, for example, are $1,029, $1,159 and $1,289 CAD for 16GB, 64GB and 128GB of storage space respectively.

Comparatively, the iPhone 6 Plus cost $969, $1,099 and $1,229 in Canadian dollars for the same capacities prior to Apple's media event yesterday. That is $60 less for each model.

The off-contract prices for the iPhone 6s Plus in Australia are $1,229, $1,379 and $1,529 AUD for 16GB, 64GB and 128GB of storage respectively. Earlier this week, the iPhone 6 Plus retailed for $1,149, $1,299 and $1,449 in Australian dollars for the same storage sizes respectively.

Similarly, the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus have higher prices at launch than the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus in euro-based countries such as France, Germany, Italy and The Netherlands. The base 16GB iPhone 6 retailed for €699 last September, for example, while the 16GB iPhone 6s will debut for €739.

Not all countries have been affected by the exchange rate, however, as the iPhone 6s Plus is priced the same as the iPhone 6 Plus in the United Kingdom. iPhone 6 Plus was most recently priced at £619, £699 and £789 in the U.K. for 16GB, 64GB and 128GB respectively, while the iPhone 6s Plus will have equal prices.

The new iPhone 6s Plus retains the same pricing as the iPhone 6 Plus in the U.S.

Alongside its slew of product announcements yesterday, Apple registered several new web domains related to the term "Magic Keyboard", including applemagickeyboard.com, applemagickeyboard.net, and applemagickeyboards.com.

While Apple did announce a new keyboard cover for the upcoming iPad Pro at yesterday's event, the product is called Smart Keyboard. It is possible Apple is simply looking to secure domains similar to the Smart Keyboard name, but perhaps a more likely possibility is that it is the name for Apple's upcoming wireless keyboard revealed in regulatory filings last month.

Apple already offers a Magic Mouse and a Magic Trackpad, and last month's FCC filings revealed a "Magic Mouse 2" name for the upgraded accessory, so it seems reasonable Apple could be looking to introduce a "Magic Keyboard." The publicly released portion of the filing for the keyboard did not, however, reveal any new "magical" features as it only showed a bottom view of the accessory for the purpose of illustrating where regulatory labels would be displayed.

Aside from the newly registered domains, we've been unable to find any other references linking Apple to the "Magic Keyboard" name. Searches of trademark databases for many countries did not reveal any such filings that could be plausibly linked to Apple.

It remains to be seen when Apple will introduce its new keyboard and mouse revealed in the FCC filings, but it could possibly come alongside new 21.5-inch Retina 4K iMacs that are just going into production ahead of a release later this year.